


the price is paid

by highrollers



Series: the fallout; it was supposed to be the end [3]
Category: Sadie Sparks (Cartoon)
Genre: not hate/hate relationship, oh god they were babysitters, post S1, they were babysitters, unprofessional therapy classes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29208087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highrollers/pseuds/highrollers
Summary: When you teach a lazy, swaggering and cocksure wizard, you're bound to talk to someone who knew the trouble (because they had a whole scary-red mess of their own to handle and it's funny to annoy them). Basically, two mentors talking of their woes, and bringing up old wounds.
Series: the fallout; it was supposed to be the end [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025130





	the price is paid

**Author's Note:**

> guest star: the smoothie from the previous story of this series 😎

“They’re just kids.”

“And?” The snake took a long slurp of a smoothie while relaxing on a mini foldable chair on a small island suspended in mid-air. It would’ve been a sight if it wasn’t for the rabbit glaring at him with a fishing rod in hand on a floating boat nearby, but such was the normality of magic.

Well, until something abnormal happens.

“You’re somehow under the pretence that I care,” he continued, “which I don’t. I should point out that you never had a problem with that before in the first place, but that wouldn’t be very antagonistic of me and might foster some type of therapy session—”

“But this time it’s different!”

C gave him a long look, spitting out the straw and tutting all the way. “What makes it any more different that before, may I ask? It’s literally part of your job, to train potentials into… something less appalling. So what if there’s a little danger? Not like that would stop good ole obedient you, and I don’t see a way this would change that.”

He didn’t look up. _Coward_ , he wanted to hiss, but wasn’t he guilty of the same crimes? Not like that stopped him anyways, but he would like to go by most of his eventful life without someone calling him out on his well-known qualities unless it served his purposes well. “The rift, for one?” he instead supplied.

“Unprecedented, sure, but still explainable. And there were way worse things that you have seen, I can imagine. I mean, I’m pretty sure I have… well, maybe not really, but you get the point.”

The rabbit shook his head vehemently, winding up the reel. “You honestly think that, don’t you?

“What do you want me to do, hmm?” He slithered down the lower half of the island, merrily popping up next to the rabbit in the boat and flicking his tongue in his face. “Give you a hug, a kiss? Would that make you feel better?”

“More like choke me or bite me, I’d imagine.”

C snorted, which was probably the closest thing to an approval that one could get from him. “See? You get the game well; the only thing you have to do now is just pretend that’s the whole of your pathetic little life.”

“Because it is?”

“Bingo.”

The wind came and pushed the boat a little bit further away, which got the snake to hiss in annoyance and push the tiller towards the island. “I hate this place sometimes,” he muttered underneath his breath. G gave a little chuckle before covering it up by throwing the hook back. C attempted to give him his worst stink eye (he was still working on it, being a snake and all). “What’s your problem?”

“Oh nothing,” he whistled a low note before picking it up with “Except you hate everything, so it’s not much of a surprize. Now, you _actually_ taking a liking to something would merit a more extreme reaction.”

“I so want to bite your little head off,” he mumbled.

“Now that’s just rude.”

“The offer is still out if you desire that hug and kiss.”

The rabbit gave a few seconds to mock contemplation before shaking it off. “Nah. Your sharp wit and dark humour brightens up the lousiest of days. I wouldn’t miss it.”

“You mean you _would_ miss it?”

“If it were gone? Not one bit.”

The snake crawled up back to the island and took a long desperate slurp from his cup, sighing when he got his full. “Now look who’s being the rude one.”

“That’s not the point.” Sighing at the empty hook, he propped the fishing hook at an angle and laid on the bottom of the boat, ignoring the faux surprized huff he got. “My point is that she had to jump into a damn rift, the biggest by far, just to close it. We couldn’t do anything about it—”

“I’d say keeping my wizard out of it is something.”

“And what a thing it was. But you’re missing the point on purpose this time and you know it.”

C rolled his eyes (to the best of his effort, but the sentiment was not missed). “And was I supposed to get it? She jumped in, yes, but sealed the rift airtight in the end. In anyone’s book it’d be considered a win, and they’d be right for once.”

“Shocker,” G huffed in reproving tones.

“What did you expect? That I’d suddenly care about her? (because she’s not my protégé.) That just because mines fell in love with her (what a stupid move, love) (I thought he was better than that) I would give a rabbit’s dropping about her? Because I honestly, truly, don’t. If she died, then that was her problem. You said you warned her, I’m pretty sure everyone knows that rifts are unstable as it is and she made her choice. So stop coddling her, for magic’s sake.”

Just after he finished his rant, a furry hand grabbed him, just a bit above his heart, and violet eyes looked straight into his own flat ones. Didn’t the ancients used to rattle on about eyes being the windows of the soul? He dimly remembered how the other’s wizard looked up the meaning of colours once after one of their conjoined lessons (he remembered another time when one of his snakelets, his pupils, held a violet under his nose and murmured about wisdom and compassion, arrogance and cynicism, peace and protection and love and determination and—) and while he scoffed that time, even he couldn’t resist a quick look at the rabbit and those tired eyes.

“Say it again,” that same rabbit growled, eyes alight with fury and passion. C laughed weakly, barely a cough, while scratching at the iron tight grip with the end of his tail.

“I said… that the price is paid. That her instability sealed the rift but not herself. That he would fall in love with the one person who would not reciprocate it. That we would stand watch for this and do nothing, because that is our job and we have nothing better that we can do. Tis the way the magical realm worked, and so it’ll always go on. Hate, pain, sadness and tears. One day you’re fine, the next you’re in over your head. What else is new?”

A second, a few more. You could never get used to power; you can never get enough of it. Once you have it, you do all you can to keep it. No wonder why so many have gone to the dark side.

A dry breath, a fading heartbeat. Then he let go his iron grip and slumped back to his boat. C rubbed at the ground of the island, furiously trying to erase the feel of those fingers on his body, trying to forget a million memories that he buried deep down, something he wished could’ve been easy for once. Undignified, sure, but what was a little loss of pride to let go of what really hurts? He was a predator, a cold-blooded mentor that came to perfect and nothing more. Not to muse about what-ifs and could’ve-beens.

He had enough lifetimes of those.

“The price is paid,” he rasped once more as the boat motor started up and died with a sputter of bubbles. He tipped the straw of his drink closer to his parched throat and took a last sip, savouring the end of the smoothie. It was refreshing while it lasted, he’ll admit. Or maybe nearly dying once more hasn’t lost all of its sting just yet. “She did her bit, we did ours, and we all came out alive. What more could you ask for?”

It was dangerous, he knew, to push someone who was already on the brink. But with all those countless years ticking by, danger is what kept things interesting for once. Gives life its flavour, if one had to put it in the dullest words imaginable.

“Are you delusional? Next time, it could be _her_ who would lose her life.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to make the most of it while you can.” _Better delusional than sentimental, long ears._

Happy, sad. Angry, mad. How many emotions can you feel in a second? “You wouldn’t say the same thing if it was your wizard’s life on the line.”

“And that’s why he wouldn’t risk his life like that.”

The rabbit scoffed to that, packing away his fishing equipment and pointing the rudder away from the little pack of islands. “Which is precisely why he would never learn anything, least of all love.”

It was just another listless day, and the sky was the same listless shade of pink and gold, and a rabbit was leaving a snake once more. “He doesn’t need to learn that, he only needs to be perfect at everything else,” C hissed at him, those words chasing the distance between them. A snort bounced back in reply.

“Oh you little legless lizard, if only you knew.” He pulled over to the edge of the boat and kicked the side of one of the islands floating behind him, kickstarting the engine (which temporarily broke down). “The price is never paid. After all, wasn’t that the lesson one of your mentees—”

“Call me that again.” Now it was his turn to be surprized (he wasn’t; how dull), now it was his turn to feel scales flattening his fur (they both hated the sensation but go with what works, right?). “Say that again.”

“Little legless lizard…” he smiled, dragging a shaky finger over his flared frills. “You don’t scare me.”

“I can eat you up right now and no one would know the better.” A lie, but fear doesn’t know the difference between that and truth.

“Quite frankly I’ve been looking forward to the showdown.”

A few more seconds of his fangs so tantalisingly close to his neck, feeling the venom building up as his touch-starved body tightened around his rival. It always came down to this—harmless bantering and loose lips to being literally at each other’s throats. It was tiring, following the same fight schedule, a bite for a bite.

It was tiring, but it was what they knew. So they parted, a low hiss in return for a flick underneath his jaws, and in no time at all a few parting bubbles were all that was left of the rabbit and his boat, and a leftover cup from the snake knocked over carelessly, doomed to forever fall down the distance in between the floating isles.

Because what did they know? To best each other, to sacrifice all for what they have they will throw their children through hell itself to show their power.

What was the difference between them but fur and scales, one less inclined to hurt but would do it anyways, one burning down the rest of his emotion not unlike one of his former wizards who attempted to shed their goodness in exchange for their so-called power?

Maybe this generation of wizards would teach them the problem with such a goal, but how are they any different from the countless others who came before them?

So many questions, and not enough time.

Maybe they were doomed to their fate, like the cup.

Or maybe they were destined to be above such pettiness, like the bubbles that floated above.

Who would know?

A question for another time, for sure.

**Author's Note:**

> [ p.s. if you're wondering why the letters, let's just say they would never acknowledge they met each other in their own time with good intentions for once :P ]
> 
> also yes, the smoothie endured very much between this fic and the last and if you want details feel free for a comment!! also thankies for the readers!! kudos and comments are well appreciated, especially from a fandom i didn't expect to see lol


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